Hey Mr.Siemers,

So far this is the list that Mariana and I have thought of. There are the typical holiday songs and then a mix of songs that might be semi-appropriate to songs that we both just want to play together.

1.Rhapsody in Blue - There are a millions arrangements of this on JW Pepper. So, I didn’t know which one to link. This is Mariana’s verison of Pavane for me. Her dream song. I don’t think it’s that appropriate for Christmas. But I guess whatever. We can throw in some jingle bells or something.

2. And the herald angels sang (arr. James Swearingen) - I found a band arrangement for this. It was cute. But I don’t know how we would work out the parts between us.
Link to the MP3: http://www.barnhouse.com/samples/mp3/012-3170-00.mp3

3. Little Drummer Boy (arr. John O’Reilly)- This was my favorite arrangement that I found, it’s def an extremely cool mix of sounds. I was checking out the sample score for this. There is violin, viola, violin, cello, string bass, and a piano accompaniment. That should be good for transcribing for the other parts I think.

4. Hero’s Welcome (Doug Spata)-
Link to MP3: http://www.alfred-music.com/player/AlfredOrchestra2009/31600/player.html

Not so Christmassy, but I don’t want to be the typical ensemble that plays sterotypical international jingle bells. I found this while looking up the Ravel piece we talked about. But I really liked the way this sounded. I don’t know what you want to do with SmallEnsemble. But if you’re not that into the straight by the book cookie cutter Christmas Concert pieces. Then this is something to look into. Bbbbbut that’s your call.

I remember last year(ish?) you guys did Billy Joel’s Lullabye (Goodnight, my angel) and Christmas Canon. So I was thinking, we could do a christmassy song, and then I don’t know a normal but appropriate/fitting song. [ And by that. I’m totally hinting at a instrumental version of Piano Man, My Life, or Scenes from an Italian Restaurant for the Spring Concert!!]

5. Pavane Pour une Infante Defunte (Maurice Ravel/arr. Brubaker)
   Pavane, like we spoke about. But arranged for Band. Honestly, and I’m not just saying this because I love this piece, but I think this could be kind of Christmassy. I mean it sounds like something that would be played on a Disney movie, like Polar Express or something. I don’t really like the arrangement, it doesn’t sound as epic as I feel it should be. It’s very light. But the other arrangement by Atwell doesn’t suit my taste at all.
Link to MP3: http://www.alfred-music.com/player/BelwinConcertBand2006/24764/player.html

6. It came across a midnight clear (arr. Cynthia Dobrinski)
I thought this sounded retarded. But I thought I would throw it in. Just in case you like it. I personally don’t like the original song, and this arrangement just makes it sound worst.

Well that’s it for right now. Mariana advised me that it would be a good idea to split up the list so that you wouldn’t be bombarded with Christmas sheet music on Monday. I’ll be searching for more tomorrow, since I didn’t have homework this weekend. And Mariana will be joining me tomorrow once she gets over her cold. 

So if you get this in time, and you’re not busy or anything. Send us a reply on the kind of pieces you would like us to search for/ what you thought of our list already, or what you think is appropriate for us to play.

Have a good weekend,

Tessie